As the search for hydrocarbon offshore runs deeper and farther from land, it is best we gear ourselves

to embrace what it takes for delivering highly deviated deepwater development wells to push the
frontiers of petroleum extraction. This paper discusses the monitoring and optimizations of deepwater
wells operations in Malaysia by the Shell Malaysia Exploration and Production Real Time Operation
Centre (SMEP RTOC). The scopes of monitoring and optimizations discussed in this paper include: 1.
Hydraulics management in narrow pressure margin drilling, including modelling, optimization,
measurement and monitoring of equivalent circulating density (ECD). 2. Engineering support in pre-drill
study for Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) application. 3. Mitigation of drilling vibration in highly
deviated wells, especially stick-slip vibration. 4. Hole cleaning modelling, monitoring and optimization. 5.
Drilling roadmaps and database are archived by RTOC for future wells reference. 6. Drilling operations
performance tracking and benchmarking. 7. 24/7 Top Tension Riser, Hawser and mooring lines tension
monitoring. Deepwater drilling operation costs are typically significantly higher than shallow water and
land rig operations. This is partly due to higher rig rates in deepwater operations. In this case any
reduction in Invisible Lost Time (ILT) and Non-Productive Time (NPT) may result in significant cost
reduction. Like a safety net that catches anomalies that slipped the first line of defense, RTOC
monitoring has the facilities and trained capabilities to oversee and optimize the operations in totality
both during real time and post run. An investment in RTOC services in exchange of more cost efficient
and safer operations will be justified in the paper. Real Time Operation Centre (RTOC) is becoming more
indispensable over the years. Hawk-eyeing operations in areas where attention is diluted by other tasks
on the rig, could probably be the insurance needed in every future oil and gas drilling. The methods,
procedures and processes in well operations will definitely advance with time and further developments
and innovations in this subject will be closely followed within the industry

The monitoring and management of drilling fluid properties while drilling oil and gas wells is very
important, especially when drilling in oil and gas fields where highly pressurized formations with narrow
pore pressure/ fracture gradient windows are encountered. The most critical of these properties include
the drilling fluid density or mud weight (MW) and the rheological properties i.e., plastic viscosity (PV)
and yield point (YP). Changes in these properties are usually the first indication of downhole problems
and thus the need to constantly monitor them cannot be overemphasized. While drilling, much effort is
put into having a tight control on these drilling fluid properties. The conventional approach to
monitoring drilling fluid properties in drilling operations involves the drilling fluid engineer carrying out
routine tests on mud samples, taken from the active mud system. These tests include MW checks and
funnel viscosity tests to check for any changes in MW and/or rheological properties. If any changes or
deviations are detected in these tests, more detailed tests are subsequently carried out on the mud
samples to identify which of the other properties have changed and the possible causes. This is a time-
consuming process and by the time the causes are identified, the resulting downhole problems would
have deteriorated to cause major challenges like stuck-pipe, lost circulation or well control. This issue
requires an automated & continuous system to measure the drilling fluid density and rheological
properties and monitor their trends. The Density Rheology Monitoring System (DRMS) is an innovative
real-time solution that has been developed to gives real time values for the MW and rheological
properties of the drilling fluid in the active system, thus allowing for the quick detection any changes in
these properties and the timely response to them. This is a far more effective approach than the
conventional mud checks, since it reduces the lag time between the actual changes in drilling fluid
properties and the identification for these changes. The DRMS consists of the Density Rheology Unit
(DRU) linked to a Monitoring System (MS). The DRU measures laboratory-grade density and six-speed
rheology via rapid sampling at the collection point, usually located at the flow line after the shakers and
in the active mud tank. The density measurements are taken once every 90 seconds, while the rheology
measurements are taken once every 20 minutes. The MS presents these values digitally and plots the
trends graphically so that changes can be quickly and easily

This paper will discuss the Managed Pressure Directional Drilling fit-for-purpose solution deployed to
meet the drilling challenges faced in 5 consecutive wells drilled in South Texas, USA. This innovative
solution integrates a state-of-art Rotary Steerable System (RSS) with Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD)
technology. Drilling hazards such as well control events, simultaneous kick-loss, and stuck pipe were
mitigated, and an improved drilling performance with a reduction of NPT as compared to other
directional drilling systems. The solution requires the integration of two highly technical disciplines,
MPD and Directional Drilling. Hence, a Joint Operating & Reporting Procedure (JORP) and a defined
communication protocol are crucial for effective execution. The solution is based on a rigorous Drilling
Engineering process, including detailed offset wells analysis to deliver a comprehensive risk assessment
& mitigation plan in collaboration with the Operator to tackle drilling hazards without compromising the
directional drilling requirements. This paper will summarize the 5 wells operations, the drilling
optimization results, and the lessons learned from an integrated services point of view in terms of
deliverables that made the difference on this project and allowed the Operator to achieve their
objectives. In particular, the effective communication protocol between the directional drilling services,
MPD services, and rig contractors to ensure safe operational alignment.

Gartner named digital twin as one of the top ten technology trends for 2019. The awareness of this
trend has now also reached the E&P industry, which can be seen by an increasing number of papers
being published about the subject the last two years. Even though the term is new, the technology
behind has been around for many years. In this paper we will show how a digital twin araised through
the development of the comprehensive model. A model that has evolved through the development of
smaller simulation models, each made to solve a different problem. With only minor extension, this
model represented a complete virtual rig, ready to connect and develop the managed pressure drilling
(MPD) control system. Running together with the control system it was also, with some minor changes,
ready to be used in a training simulator. The big step was to prepare the model for running in parallel
with a real well to estimate downhole pressure and other variables where they were not measured.
Various issues around this are discussed in the paper. Finally, some results from a full-scale test of an
MPD system on a rig at a research and development facility in Navasota, Texas, are presented. These
tests showed that after some tuning the model could assist the control system in maintaining the
pressure at any given arbitrary point in the well, an important point toward making a fully integrated
MPD system.